Specializing in losing

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, November 25, 1997

DENVER - Desmond Howard could only shake his head. John Henry Mills displayed the kind of shame one reveals when disappointing a parent.

And as for Joe Bugel, the Raiders' coach, and his impressions of his special-teams play in a 31-3 loss to the Denver Broncos on Monday night? Well, he couldn't offer much more than his star special teams players. They, like the rest of the Raiders, failed to produce in a game that was available for the entire country to watch.

What the entire country saw is what everyone in the Bay Area has known for some time. The Raiders have problems. All over. And on Monday night, these were most glaring in the kicking game.

"Special teams and field position were major factors for them in this game," said Howard, who totaled a meager 89 yards on returns. "And they were a big reason for our problems. They just teed off on us in that area."

The Broncos aren't the first team to outplay the Raiders on special teams this season. It's just that no other opponent has - to steal one of Al Davis' favorite words - dominated them in this area as thoroughly as the Broncos did Monday.

Howard's only punt return netted 3 yards. He called for a fair catch on three other attempts. He also averaged a meager 17.2 yards on five kick returns, and was belted by Broncos tight end Dwayne Carswell on a third-quarter return.

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The end result was consistently poor field position for the Raiders throughout the game. At times, it seemed as if the Raiders offense were starting drives in the Mile High parking lot considering how far they had to go for a score. The Raiders started 10 of their 14 drives at or inside their own 20-yard line. The first six began at the 18-yard line or worse.

"The reason we had lousy field position is that we really struggled in the kicking game," said Bugel, whose team slipped to 4-8. "We thought we were going to get better in that phase. Coming into this stadium, you better play at least at midfield. Because if you start at the minus-10 or minus-15 yard line, it's a tough area to get out of."

"It's hard for me to accept this because we beat them last time," said Mills, referring to the Raiders' 28-25 win on Oct. 19. "To come back and embarrass ourselves on special teams like this is difficult. We have to play smarter and harder. We have to put our offense in better positions."

There actually has been little special about the Raiders' special teams play this season. Howard has looked like a man in need of the blocking he received from the Green Bay Packers last season. After averaging 15.1 yards per punt return in 1996, he's gaining just 8.1 for every opportunity this season.

Howard also has had plenty of kick return chances (his 49 returns rank second in the NFL), but hasn't broken loose once. He's averaging 22.4 yards in that category. However, unlike cornerback Larry Brown, the Raiders' previous Super Bowl Most Valuable Player mistake, Howard's problem isn't a lack of talent. It's the players around him and their execution.

That wasn't only the case in the special-teams department on Monday. A crowd of 75,307 watched the Raiders wither in all three phases of the game. Special teams just attracted the most attention.

The Broncos (10-2) clearly were on a mission to accomplish two things. One was to put themselves back on a winning streak after a loss to Kansas City. The other was to throttle the Raiders on national television, in the process proving that game in mid-October was nothing more than an aberration. Denver succeeded on both counts.

Offensively, the Raiders generated about as much energy as a corroded battery. They converted only three of 15 third-down opportunities. Running back Napoleon Kaufman never approached the team-record 227 yards he gained in that first game. He finished with 53 yards on 13 carries.

Raiders quarterback Jeff George threw for only 185 yards and no touchdowns. Tim Brown caught eight passes for all of 55 yards. The offense struggled to hear snap counts over the crowd noise, resulting in several of the team's 12 penalties for 82 yards.

Defensively, the Raiders couldn't contain Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe, who caught 10 passes for 142 yards. Broncos quarterback John Elway was quietly efficient with 280 yards passing, and Terrell Davis ran for three touchdowns despite rushing for just 69 yards. And of course, you already know about the special teams.

"This was good way for us to bounce back," Elway said.

"Both from last week and the first Raiders game. We wanted to beat them and beat them bad."

This game didn't start as blowout. It just gradually evolved into one. It actually turned on a James Jett fumble midway through the second quarter, one the Broncos turned into a 3-yard scoring run by Davis. The Raiders still only trailed 14-3 at the half.

But Denver corrected what it had to at halftime while the Raiders apparently didn't. A 2-yard run by Davis and a 15-yard touchdown pass from Elway to Rod Smith highlighted a 17-point third quarter that ended any question of a Raiders comeback.

The only questions the Raiders were left to answer involved their inability to match Denver's aggression. That was, after all, the biggest difference in the game, one that revealed itself most on special teams.

"They were high-energy all game long and doing a lot of talking," said Raiders wide receiver Kenny Shedd, who plays on several special-teams units. "I don't think they came with anything special. We prepared well. But in a game like this, it usually comes down to big plays and we couldn't create any for ourselves." &lt;

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